Toronto's Melvin Ejim trying to prove to hometown Raptors he can be a productive NBAer, tackling criticism head-on

TORONTO — Toronto’s Melvin Ejim was one of the best players in college basketball this year. He averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds per game at Iowa State, enough to earn him Big 12 Player of the Year honours — over the two Kansas freshmen who might be the first two selections in the NBA Draft. His team won the conference tournament and made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

Now the graduating senior is trying to impress NBA teams, and everything has changed. At 6-foot-6, he is too small to guard power forwards as he did most often in college and not necessarily quick enough to guard wing players. His 35% accuracy from three-point range, a huge leap from where he started at Iowa State, will have to improve in the NBA. At 23, he is a few years older than the players that teams are currently salivating over — like those guys from Kansas, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid.

Indeed, one of the best players in college basketball might not be drafted on June 26.

“It’s kind of like senior year in high school all over again,” Ejim said after working out with his hometown team, the Toronto Raptors, on Wednesday. “It’s kind of like you’re going up for college, except this time the schools aren’t coming to you, you’re going to these teams. And it’s just as important, as it was then, to show how good you are, to go out and play well, conduct yourself in a [good] manner and go out and play hard. So it’s kind of strange going back to that, but it’s something I’ve been a part of, something we’ve all been a part of.”

So, instead of resenting the request to prove himself all over again, he is welcoming it. On Wednesday, Ejim eloquently tore down all of the criticisms that hound him, and are at the heart of what teams are fixated on when he comes to visit them. Raptors director of scouting Dan Tolzman said that Ejim will have to defend the wing in the NBA, and the Raptors were trying to determine whether or not he could.

However, both player and team reached a similar conclusion.

“I just think that it depends on how you view the role and how a lot of teams view a ‘tweener [a player who does not have a natural position] and the way that basketball is played [with] smallball — that’s something that’s an asset,” Ejim said. “That’s something that you can use to help you win games.”

“It’s almost a positive in today’s game,” Tolzman added. “You want the flexibility that if a team goes big against you, you have the ability to just shift guys over a spot and keep your best players out there. I think the same goes the other way. If guys go small, you’d like to have perimeter players that can bang down low and can rebound hard when you’re in a small ball game. I think it’s just the progression of the game.

“I don’t want to call him a ‘tweener for sure, because I think he is proving he can be a full-time [small forward]. He’s trending toward being a perimeter player.”

Of course, this is draft workout time, when every prospect is properly addressing his flaws and every team is in love with each guy rolls through town — at least when the cameras are on. Nobody slams anybody publicly in this process, at least until it has finished playing out later in the month.

However, at 23, Ejim is mature enough to know that the process will not work for him unless he works for it. In that sense, he seems to be a step or two ahead of his peers.